IoT: the A-to-Z of TechTalk at ARM TechCon

This blog requires a long, tall cup of coffee: Go get one, put your feet up, and plow on through. ARM TechCon 2014 took place this week at the Santa Clara Convention Center, and as an indication of what the industry feels is important right now, the following is a complex snapshot of press releases issued by various TechCon exhibitors highlighting their progress in the days leading up to and including the show. Listed first are the three main ARM press releases, then the other exhibitors are showcased.

By the way, the answer to what the industry thinks is important today? If the following is any indication, it’s IoT all the way down, with a dollop of FinFET and low-power thrown in for good measure. And if you don’t know IoT means Internet of Things, you haven’t been listening – particularly as Freescale says in their Press Release: “Analyst research firm Gartner estimates that the IoT will include 26 billion units installed by 2020, and by that time, IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services.”

Another possible conclusion from the following: If you’re still holding out hope the Design Automation Conference is anchor tenant of the conference year, you should let that go. The amount of news these companies are releasing around ARM TechCon far out weighs what they’re releasing around DAC.

**ARM announced on October 1st “two new physical IP implementation solutions for its silicon partners to help simplify the path to implementation for their FinFET physical designs. ARM Artisan Power Grid Architect will reduce overall design time by creating optimal SoC power grid layouts, while ARM Artisan Signoff Architect increases accuracy and precision in managing on-chip variation over existing methodologies. These new physical IP implementation solutions strengthen the commitment from ARM to enable delivery of real silicon with the speed consumers are demanding.”

**ARM announced on October 1st, mbed OS, a free operating system for ARM Cortex-M processor based devices that consolidates the fundamental building blocks of the IoT in one integrated set of software components; mbed Device Server, a licensable software product that provides the required server-side technologies to connect and manage devices in a secure way, that also provides a bridge between the protocols designed for use on IoT devices and the APIs that are used by web developers; and mbed.org, the focus point for a community of more than 70,000 developers around mbed. The website provides a comprehensive database of hardware development kits, a repository for reusable software components, reference applications, documentation and web-based development tools.

**ARM and TSMC announced on October 2nd a new multi-year agreement that will deliver up ARMv8-A processor IP optimized for TSMC 10FinFET process technology. Per the Press Release: “Because of the success in scaling from 20SoC to 16FinFET, ARM and TSMC have decided to collaborate again for 10FinFET. This early path-finding work will provide valuable learning to enable physical design IP and methodologies in support of customers to tape-out 10FinFET designs as early as Q4 2015.”

**Aldec announced on September 25th the company “will be on hand at the 10th annual ARM TechCon Conference in Santa Clara. As a member of the ARM Connected Community, Aldec provides a comprehensive hardware design and verification platform for Emulation, Prototyping, Design Entry, HDL Simulation, and Design Rule Checking.”

**AMD announced a demo on October 1st of the first network function virtualization (NFV) on AMD’s 64-bit ARM-based SoC, and also announced it’s being sampled to AMD’s embedded customers. Per the Press Release: “The NFV demonstration is powered by a 64-bit ARM-based AMD Embedded R-Series SoC, codenamed ‘Hierofalcon,’ supported with technology from two key ecosystem partners – Aricent for the networking software stack and Mentor Graphics for embedded Linux and tools. NFV simplifies deployment and management for network and telecommunications service providers with a fully virtualized communications infrastructure that helps maximize performance, while working to reduce costs.”

**ANSYS announced on September 29th that its RedHawk and Totem products are certified for TSMC 16-nanometer FinFET+, a second-generation FinFET technology “delivering power, performance and area advantages over the previous generation. TSMC has certified these solutions for static and dynamic voltage drop analysis, EM verification and thermal reliability with V0.9 of DRM and SPICE model, and V1.0 certification is on track to be concluded by November 2014. Also, TSMC and ANSYS have been collaborating to enable power integrity and reliability for TSMC 10nm process technology. With N10 specific tool enhancement implemented, customers can now use ANSYS tools to start their designs in TSMC N10 technology.”

**Arteris, “the inventor and only supplier of silicon-proven commercial NoC interconnect IP solutions,” announced September 30th the new FlexNoC Resilience Package that the company says is “designed to increase reliability and lower the cost of developing resilient and fault tolerant SoCs. The FlexNoC Resilience Package enhances the benefits of Arteris FlexNoC fabric IP to automotive, aerospace defense, industrial equipment and other electronics markets requiring fault tolerance.”

**ASSET InterTech announced October 1st that collaboration is key: “By supporting the powerful 64-bit version of Embedded Trace Macrocell (ETMv4) from ARM on AppliedMicro’s X-Gene Server-on-a-Chip processor, ASSET InterTech’s SourcePoint debugger platform will shorten the time to market for enterprise systems in the cloud. ARM’s ETMv4 is part of CoreSight technology which supports debug and trace processes on complex multi-core SoCs. AppliedMicro’s X-Gene is a scalable, fully integrated multicore SoC with enterprise-class ARM cores.”

**Atmel announced October 1st the development of a new family of Atmel|SMART ARM Cortex-M7-based MCUs that are “sampling” to select customers now. Per the Press Release: “Broadening Atmel’s current MCU/MPU portfolio, the family is well positioned between Atmel’s ARM Cortex-M-based MCUs and Cortex-A-based MPUs enabling designers to select from a greater range of processing solutions. The new devices will address high-growth markets including the IoT and wearables, as well as automotive and industrial applications that require both high performance and power efficiency.”

**Atollic announced September 24th support for the upcoming ARM Cortex-M7 based devices, which the company says are “high performance, with powerful capabilities and perfectly suited to the Atollic TrueSTUDIO C/C++ IDE, as it brings superior features for development, debugging, team collaboration and improved software quality. The Cortex-M7 processor takes advantage of the same C friendly programmer’s model and is 100% binary compatible with existing Cortex-M processors and tools. Software compatibility enables simple migration from Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 processors for current TrueSTUDIO developers. Atollic plans to add device specific support for Cortex-M7 based devices from leading semiconductor manufacturers once they become available.

**Avago Technologies announced September 10th that its “advanced lineup of 12Gb/s SAS storage solutions has been chosen to power more than 250 new server models based on the recently announced Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product family. Leading server manufacturers have selected Avago 12Gb/s SAS and MegaRAID solutions to provide the field-proven technology demanded by next-generation server platforms that run data-intensive applications.”

**Cadence announced October 1st that ARM “utilized Cadence Palladium Hybrid technology and ARM Fast Models to achieve a 50X faster OS boot-up during the development of its ARM Mali-T760 GPU. Compared to the previous emulation-only solution, this resulted in up to 10X speed-up of overall hardware-software testing, and increased speed reduced ARM’s time from OS boot-up to test from hours to minutes, improving turnaround time and system quality.

**Carbon announced in September general availability of Carbon System Exchange, “a web portal enabling greater designer productivity faster with pre-built virtual prototype systems, which simplifies access to Carbon Performance Analysis Kits (CPAKs), pre-built systems or subsystems with software at the bare metal or O/S level.”

**Cavium announced October 1st the company is collaborating with the FreeBSD Foundation “to develop and deliver the first ARMv8 reference design and implementation of the FreeBSD Os based on the ThunderX workload optimized processor family for next generation Data Center and Cloud workloads. FreeBSD is the most widely used open-source BSD distribution, accounting for more than three-quarters of all installed systems running open-source BSD derivatives. FreeBSD is widely used in infrastructure applications such as storage, web and media streaming applications and environments. With a repository of over 24,000 applications FreeBSD provides a broad array of options for developers, system administrators and end users.”

**Codasip announced September 25th that Coby Hanoch has been named Vice President of Worldwide Sales, and “will play a key role in driving the international expansion of Codasip and help bring its industry leading tools and IP to design teams around the globe.”

**Doulos announced in mid-September the establishment of Doulos Embedded, “a new division to develop and deliver know how to teams of embedded software developers worldwide. The division will be spearheaded by a specialist team consisting of Ray Mogford, Adrian Thomasset and Simon Goda, who are joining Doulos with many years of international experience in embedded software training. Based out of Bristol, they will integrate with the Doulos team across Europe and North America to develop the Doulos presence and capability to deliver know-how in the Embedded Software space.”

**Express Logic announced October 1st the X-Ware Platform, “target-specific, integrated development software that delivers all X-Ware components (ThreadX, NetX, USBX, FileX, GUIX, and TraceX) pre-ported and fully integrated for use on specific development boards. Recognizing ARM’s market leadership in the IoT space, Express Logic has tailored its initial X-Ware Platform offerings to the ARM Developer Community. By integrating its high-quality, widely respected ThreadX RTOS and middleware components for use on specific targets, Express Logic’s X-Ware Platform simplifies and accelerates IoT development for products aimed at markets such as home automation, smart metering, industrial control, medical devices, and more.”

**Freescale Semiconductor announced on September 30th its “leadership in the Internet of Things” would be showcased at ARM TechCon 2014 conference, where the company will launch its Internet of Tomorrow Tour: “A high-end truck trailer retrofitted to display more than 120 IoT products and technology demonstrations, the Internet of Tomorrow Tour, will cut through the hype by allowing visitors to interact with real technology, real products, real sensors, real chips and real software driving the IoT of today – and the breakthrough IoT innovations of tomorrow. ARM TechCon will the first stop for this inaugural, 20,000-mile tour that launches a long-term initiative to help spark new ideas and bring the building blocks of IoT directly to the creative minds and companies that are making the IoT a reality.”

John Dixon, Freescale’s Director of Marketing, is quoted: “ARM technology is central to the IoT, and this year’s ARM TechCon event is the ideal venue to launch the Freescale Internet of Tomorrow Tour. This innovative program is all about traveling to and working with designers and engineers from around the world to help them turn their IoT visions into reality.”

**GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced October 1st that it received the 2014 award for Excellence in Silicon Ecosystems from Cisco: “This prestigious award recognizes GLOBALFOUNDRIES for performing beyond expectations by partnering with Cisco as a critical sub-tier supply chain partner on developing advanced technologies in the areas of silicon wafer manufacturing, IC packaging, assembly and test.”

**Green Hills Software announced October 1st, “early access availability of its complete development tool suite and µ-velOSity RTOS for the new ARM Cortex-M7 processor. The Green Hills Software development solution for the Cortex-M7 core includes the Green Hills ARM C/C++ compilers, which generate the fastest and smallest code in the industry; the Green Hills Probe and SuperTrace Probe, and the MULTI integrated software development environment.”

**HP announced September 29th “the innovative HP Stream line-up of thin and light Windows products that leverage the cloud and make it easy to work and play from more places with the addition of two new notebook PCs and two new tablets.”

Mike Nash, VP of Product Management, Consumer Personal Systems at HP, is quoted: “Today’s consumers demand mobile products that fit their personal style and allow them to work and play where ever they are. The HP Stream products announced today hit the mark with sleek design, portability, access to free cloud storage, and the familiarity of Windows and Office 365.”

**IAR Systems announced September 30th that its ARM development tools “continue to deliver the market’s best performance for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers. CoreMark benchmark scores for the new ARM Cortex-M7 core adds to a row of unbeaten performance records for the highly optimizing IAR C/C++ Compiler for microcontrollers based on the ARM Cortex-M processor family. IAR Embedded Workbench is the leading development tool chain for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers. In addition to the sophisticated IAR C/C++ Compiler, the tools include extensive debugging and analysis possibilities, and offer the broadest device support in the industry covering more than 3,000 ARM devices.

“Thanks to strong partnerships with the leading microcontroller manufacturers, IAR Systems is able to deliver market-leading performance across a wide spectrum of ARM Cortex-M-based processor families. This unique independence allows customers to pick and choose among the different microcontrollers, finding the perfect choice for their needs while feeling confident they will be able to maximize the features of the selected microcontroller.”

**The Internet Protocol for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance announced September 30th its Smart Objects Guideline, Starter Pack 1.0. Per the Press Release: “The Smart Objects Starter Pack (SOSP) 1.0 provides a basis for interoperability across devices connected to the IoT through an open common object model. This open standards based data design is crucial for the wide scale deployment and success of IoT and Machine-to-Machine applications. In its role as the leader in the use of IP across the IoT, IPSO has been working to promote the use of open standards and explain the benefits of an IP-based end-to-end IoT. With this publication, IPSO is moving from ‘Why use IP?’ to ‘How to use IP.’

“The Alliance is now working on IoT architecture guidelines that will bring together the knowledge of IPSO members from across industries including Smart Energy, Smart Cities, Healthcare, Home Automation, Process Control and Building Automation. These documents will provide a guide to understanding how various open standards can be combined to build a secure, interoperable, extensible and maintainable IoT and M2M communications stack.”

Geoff Mulligan, IPSO Chairman, is quoted: “This document is the first in a series that will serve as a guide to developers, product designers and anyone choosing between closed proprietary systems and open standards based solutions. These guidelines will help innovators more easily use IP in Smart Objects for new application domains and help facilitate growth in the IoT.”

**Lauterbach announced on October 1st its support for the ARM Cortex-M7 Processor. Per the Press Release: Lauterbach’s “µTrace is an all-in-one solution supporting both debug and trace for Cortex-M based processors. By the use of simple and complex breakpoints the developer can control the operation of the program and analyze the data in C and C++.”

**Micrium announced September 24th its Micrium Spectrum “pre-integrated end-to-end portfolio of embedded software, protocol stacks, cloud services to facilitate development of IoT devices. A first in the industry, Micrium Spectrum is also silicon vendor agnostic, which allows designers to develop proprietary and differentiated solutions.”

Company CEO & President Jean Labrosse is quoted: “The IoT is driving a resurgence in the embedded industry. IoT-ready devices require a solid software infrastructure, including a real-time kernel plus additional services like TCP/IP, WiFi and Bluetooth stacks, as well as cloud services and the ability to put it all together.”

**MontaVista Software announced October 1st their support of Docker virtualization technology in its Carrier Grade Edition 7 (CGE7) on ARM processors. Per the Press Release: “As part of CGE7‘s advanced virtualization technology, MontaVista now supports Docker as an alternative method to a hypervisor for virtualizing applications. MontaVista already supports traditional LXC containers, and has done so for many years. Docker provides a method of container virtualization without the need for a hypervisor, and addresses a number of concerns that container technology had around security and multi-tenant isolation. With Docker and CGE7, Enterprise and Service Provider customers can now use an alternative virtualization method to meet strict networking requirements around high performance, security and reliability – something traditional hypervisor solutions were not always able to collectively meet.”

**Mouser Electronics announced October 2nd the global release of MultiSIM BLUE, the NI Multisim Component Evaluator Mouser Edition, an all-in-one circuit simulation tool complete with integrated PCB layout and Bill of Materials. Per the Press Release: “It allows you to scheme, simulate, PCB design, BOM export and purchase with one powerful integrated tool. Available via free download on Mouser.com, MultiSIM BLUE enables engineers to design and simulate circuits before laying them out in physical prototypes.”

**Open-Silicon announced September 24th expanded virtual prototyping capabilities with support for a new web portal introduced by Carbon Design Systems, Carbon System Exchange. The companies says the portal will “provide access to more than 100 pre-built virtual prototype systems and subsystems. These pre-built systems, known as Carbon Performance Analysis Kits (CPAKs), speed the creation and optimization of ASIC and SoC designs. CPAKs include software, IP and system solutions from numerous vendors. As part of its support, Open-Silicon has contributed three CPAKs to the portal.”

Huzefa Cutlerywala, Senior Director of Technical Solutions at Open-Silicon, is quoted: “We are already using CPAKs internally to deliver optimized ARM processor-based designs, and have found that CPAKs enable us to increase our productivity and accuracy, ultimately lowering cost and reducing schedule risk for customers. By making CPAKs available directly to our customers via Carbon System Exchange, we expect to build on these existing design advantages.”

**P&E Microcomputer Systems announced in early September a new pipelined version of the company’s flash programming engine for Kinetis and other ARM Cortex devices with more than 4KB of RAM. Per the Press Release: “This pipelining mechanism improves already fast programming rates by up to 50%. Support has been released for most Kinetis devices with other device support to follow. The pipelined algorithms are available for use with the latest software/firmware versions of: Cyclone MAX, Cyclone for ARM devices, PROGACMP, Freescale’s CodeWarrior and Kinetis Design Studio, and P&E’s GDB Server.”

The announcement included a caveat: “Cyclone users will need the latest version of the software for their Cyclone to use the pipelined algorithms. The latest Cyclone MAX software is available to download from P&E’s support center. The latest Cyclone for ARM devices software will be made available shortly. Contact P&E to update to the latest version of PROGACMP.”

**Rambus announced on September 30th that its Cryptography Research Division has introduced a family of differential power analysis (DPA) resistant cryptographic cores. Per the Press Release: “As part of Rambus’ overall IP cores program, these ready-to-use IP cores offer chip makers an easy-to-integrate security solution with built-in side channel resistance for cryptographic functions across a wide range of connected devices. Leading with high-performance AES cryptographic cores, these DPA resistant solutions provide SoC manufacturers with a seamless solution that enables them to devote resources to differentiating features and reduce implementation time.”

Simon Blake-Wilson, VP of Products and Marketing at Rambus is quoted: “Instances of data theft are increasing at an alarming rate. These threats highlight the vulnerability of valuable and sensitive data in all of our connected devices. By enhancing today’s standard cryptographic cores with robust DPA resistance, we ensure our customers have a higher level of protection with validated solutions.”

**Real Intent announced on September 30th the newest release of its Meridian CDC product for clock domain crossing analysis. Per the Press Release: “This new software release adds enhanced speed, analysis and debug support, boosting productivity for SoC and FPGA design teams, introduces a whole new CDC interface approach, a new way of debugging CDC violations, and a unique way to handle flat and hierarchical designs comprehensively, and delivers what the company believes is the industry’s fastest-performance, highest-capacity and most precise CDC solution in the market.

“Enhancements and updates include Meridian iDebug, Real Intent’s new state-of-the-art design intent debugger and data manager, 30-percent faster performance and 40-percent better capacity than the previous release for flat analysis of SoC and FPGA designs, an optimized bottom-up verification flow that provides hierarchical CDC reporting and sign-off management for giga-scale designs, easier design setup that enhances analysis precision and reporting clarity for faster sign-off, broader SDC design constraint support for a wider set of design types, and new formal analysis engine with up to 10X faster speed than the previous version and greater coverage to find hidden CDC problems.”

**Renesas Electronics announced on September 29th “reduced design complexities for developers of building automation, portable healthcare, smart grid, wearables, and other emerging applications for the IoT with an expansion of its innovative RX100 Series of MCUs.”

Renesas VP Ritesh Tyagi is quoted: “Embedded systems design is changing. Emerging applications demand more functionality and software design is playing a more important role. New MCU solutions must balance this complexity with demands for longer battery life in devices ranging from entry level to the high end. With larger memory capacity and our innovative True Low Power technology, the RX111 group of MCUs brings the required high-performance and ultra-low power capabilities at attractive price points, opening new opportunities to develop the next generation of applications for the Internet of Things.”

**S2C announced release of its AXI-4 Prototype Ready Quick Start Kit on September 29th, which the company says is “based on the Xilinx Zynq device. The Quick Start Kit is the latest addition to S2C’s library of Prototype Ready IP and is uniquely suited to next-generation designs including the burgeoning IoT. The Quick Start Kit adapts a Xilinx Zynq ZC702 Evaluation Board to an S2C TAI Logic Module. The evaluation board supplies a Zynq device containing an ARM dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU and a programmable logic capacity of 1.3M gates. The Quick Start Kit expands this capacity by extending the AXI-4 bus onboard the Zynq chip to external FPGAs on the TAI Logic Module prototyping system, [which allows] designers to quickly leverage a production-proven, AXI-connected prototyping platform with a large, scalable logic capacity – all supported by a suite of prototyping tools.”

S2C CEO Toshio Nakama is quoted: “Our customers are moving with unprecedented speed, conquering IoT challenges and bringing their products quickly to a highly competitive market. With such fierce competition, they need the advantage of exploring their designs quickly and proceeding with hardware optimization and software refinement. This Quick Start Kit gives them the tools to do precisely that.”

**Samsung Electronics announced on September 25th that it has started mass producing 3.2-TB NVMe PCIe solid state drives (SSDs) based on its 3D V-NAND flash memory technology, for use in high-end enterprise server systems. Per the Press Release: “The new NVMe PCIe SSD, SM1715, utilizes Samsung’s proprietary 3D V-NAND in an HHHL (half-height, half-length) card-type form factor, to offer 3.2TB of storage capacity, doubling Samsung’s previous highest NVMe SSD density of 1.6TB.”

Jeeho Baek, VP of Memory Marketing at Samsung, is quoted: “Beginning with mass production of this new V-NAND-based NVMe SSD, which delivers the highest level of performance and density available today, we expect to greatly expand the high-density SSD market. Samsung plans to actively introduce V-NAND-based SSDs with even higher performance, density and reliability in the future, to keep its global customers ahead of their competition.”

**SeeControl announced in early September that Aviva Energy Corp. selected SeeControl as the application platform to power its next-generation Machine-to-Machine and IoT Cloud Services.

Per the Press Release: “The affordable subscription services proven by SeeControl bring advanced intelligence and analytics to enterprises struggling to map energy consumption to critical business processes. Aviva Energy and SeeControl developed the EnergySensr platform as a comprehensive solution that marries low-cost electrical, natural gas and water sub-meters with a cellular M2M gateway. The solution allows deployment of energy management within sites, buildings and facilities anywhere in the world, via a self-installation kit. It provides business process definition and mapping tools so that users can link energy usage to equipment, process, area, zone, facility or other parameter unique to their operations.”

**SEGGER announced support for the new ARM Cortex-M7 architecture on September 25th. Per the Press Release: “SEGGER’s industry standard J-Link debug probes and middleware products, including embOS and the new emSecure Digital Signature Library are Cortex-M7 ready, ensuring innovators and early adopters the quickest way to successful product development. Close cooperation with ARM has allowed Cortex-M7 J-Link and middleware support for lead partners like Atmel, STMicroelectronics, and Freescale from Day One.”

**Si2 announced on October 1st the election of Suk Lee, TSMC Senior Director in the Design Infrastructure Marketing Division, to the Si2 Board of Directors for the 2014-2015 term. Lee is quoted: “TSMC has been involved with Si2’s industry efforts for many years at an operational level. As the semiconductor industry enters a new phase of evolution, TSMC believes the execution of its mission to be the trusted technology and capacity provider of the global logic IC industry for years to come requires even more strategic involvement with Si2 for the benefit of the global semiconductor industry. I look forward to helping provide leadership and vision for Si2.”

**SOMNIUM Technologies introduced its SOMNIUM DRT, “a complete software development environment for ARM Cortex-based embedded systems. Unlike other solutions currently available, SOMNIUM’s patent-pending resequencing technology provides much greater scope for optimization – resulting in shorter development times, improved performance characteristics and lower associated costs. Early tests have shown that code size reductions of over 20% can be achieved without any impact on performance.

“SOMNIUM DRT takes into account not only the processor element of the device, but also its underlying memory system. Thus every element of the code generation flow is fully aware of the target device in its entirety, resulting in optimizations beyond that possible with traditional tools and techniques. As it is fully automated, human intervention is not required – there is no need for profiler feedback or source code changes. The result is smaller, faster, more efficient and less power hungry designs, produced on time and with less programmer effort.”

Dave Edwards, Founder, CEO and CTO of SOMNIUM, is quoted: “SOMNIUM DRT differentiates itself from traditional software development tools via its patent pending device-aware resequencing optimizations. These analyze the whole program and identify all instruction and data sequences, as well as the interactions occurring between them and the hardware. As this process takes place after existing compilers have applied their optimization techniques, it builds upon traditional compiler optimizations, and integrates easily into code generation flows without the need for modifications.”

**Sonics announced on September 30th that SatixFy Ltd. is using SonicsSX as the network fabric for integration of IP cores in its SX-3000 Satellite DVB-S2X/RCS2 SOC. Per the Press Release: “Israel-based SatixFy is addressing broadband satellite communications for the forthcoming High Throughput Satellite era where wideband transponders and multi-spot beams will provide higher data rates at a more affordable cost. According to SatixFy, the new DVB-S2X satellite transmission standard provides higher efficiency, better satellite utilization, and paves the way to fully utilize HTS.”

Sonics CEO Grant Pierce is quoted: “SatixFy is one of many Israeli companies at the forefront of next-generation communications technology development. They chose Sonics’ on-chip networks for their high performance and quality in IP core integration. We are excited to be an important part of their advanced satellite SOC design architecture.”

**Spansion introduced the latest member of its Spansion Traveo microcontroller family on October 2nd, which the company says is “aimed at rich human-machine interfaces in automotive dashboards. For the first time, Spansion is integrating its breakthrough HyperBus interface with its ARM Cortex-R5-based embedded Traveo MCU, enabling seamless connections with HyperBus memories, including Spansion HyperFlash memory, to provide customers design simplification and faster performance in automotive systems. The latest Traveo family delivers state-of-the-art 2D and 3D graphics, which Spansion has optimized to bring sophisticated and automotive specific graphics functions into the car without increased power and BOM requirements.”

Saied Tehrani, SVP of Spansion’s MCU Business, is quoted: “Automotive systems are getting more complex as new features are added to improve the user experience and safety in cars. Significant amounts of processing power and new protocols are required to process information, evaluate and make decisions. Our Traveo family is unique in delivering a scalable, high-performance system at lower costs, power and footprint, allowing our customers to bring visually rich instrument clusters and heads up displays to the everyday car.”

**STMicroelectronics announced September 25th it has shipped 5,000,000,000 MEMS sensors (b for billion). Per the Press Release: “This achievement confirms ST’s continued position as the industry leader and, combined with its total of more than three billion micro-actuators shipped, demonstrates ST is the only company with the expertise to cover the full range of micro-machined silicon devices. Beyond gaming systems, smartphones, tablets, navigation systems, and other widely adopted applications, ST’s sensors have also been used in thousands of other useful, fun, and valuable applications including weather stations, bicycle helmets, smart and sport watches, and other sporting goodsiv as well as a host of automotive and IoT products.

“In addition, engineers have designed ST sensors into an amazing range of applications, including physiotherapy monitoring devices that monitor and help correct exercise movements; input devices that perform complex gesture recognition, including signature detection; safety products that prevent runaway child strollers and baby carriages; and snake-like robots for subaqueous environments.”

**Synopsys and ARM announced on October 1st a multi-year subscription agreement that expands Synopsys’ access to ARM IP and related technologies to enable optimization of Synopsys tools and methodologies for ARM-based SoCs.

Per the Press Release: “Synopsys has pre-production access to ARM Cortex processors for the ARMv8-A and ARMv7-A architectures, ARM Mali graphics processors, ARM CoreLink system IP, ARM Artisan physical IP, and ARM POP IP for implementation acceleration. With this agreement, Synopsys can develop and distribute optimized Synopsys tool scripts to ARM partners and deliver training on the use of Synopsys tools and flows with the ARM IP. Synopsys’ early access to ARM pre-production IP ensures that early licensees of the latest ARM cores have optimized tools and methodology in place when they are ready to begin their design projects.”

Pete Hutton, EVP & President of product groups at ARM, is quoted: “We have collaborated extensively with Synopsys for more than 20 years to ensure our mutual customers can get innovative products to market quickly and still meet their performance, power and area targets. With Synopsys’ early access to our latest IP and our ongoing close collaboration, we can provide our customers solutions that work effectively together as they design, implement and verify their SoCs.”

**SYSGO announced October 1st that Sven Nordhoff has been named to the newly created position of Director Certification, and is responsible for successful delivery of purchased products, services and documents to the customer.

Per the Press Release: “Devices and machinery for the Internet of Things are highly complex systems that must be tested according to industry-specific standards and protected against enemy attacks. The product development in this area usually takes several years, in which an optimal cooperation between manufacturers and suppliers is critical to the success of the project. With the newly created position of Director Certification, SYSGO bundles the human, technical and organizational responsibilities of these projects at the management level.”

SYSGO CEO Knut Degen is quoted: “The issue of product safety in the Internet of Things will challenge the entire embedded industry. The projects are complex and last a long time. That’s why we are very glad to have Sven Nordhoff as Director Certification on board.”

**Altium Ltd. announced a new release on October 1st of its TASKING compiler suite for ARM, delivering support for many additional Cortex-M based microcontrollers including STMicroelectronics, Freescale, Atmel, and Texas Instruments among other companies.

Per the Press Release: “The enhanced version brings pin assignment functionality to the toolset, which is another step forward in helping engineers to speed up application development. Altium supports the ARM Cortex-M development community through its TASKING VX-toolset for ARM, consisting of an Eclipse based IDE, C and C++ compiler, multi-core ready linker, simulator, in-circuit debugger, and TASKING’s award winning Software Platform, which enables the developer to complete the application in a fast and cost-efficient way with RTOS and a wide range of middleware components.”

**Teledyne LeCroy introduced the WaveSurfer 3074 on October 1st, “extending the bandwidth range of the popular WaveSurfer 3000 series of oscilloscopes to 750 MHz. WaveSurfer 3000 oscilloscopes feature the MAUI advanced user interface, previously available only on higher-end oscilloscopes. This advanced user interface seamlessly integrates a deep measurement toolset and multi-instrument capabilities into a cutting edge user experience centered on a large 10.1″ touch screen, the largest display and only touch screen in this class of oscilloscope.”

**Toradex announced on September 25th the bi-annual winners of the Toradex Embedded Design Challenge, a global design competition for students and technology enthusiasts.

Per the Press Release: “The Toradex challenge program has empowered students all over the world to realize their dream by helping them convert their product ideas into reality. The winners were announced at the felicitation ceremony at Toradex’s headquarters in Horw. The selection criteria was based on the concept, implementation and presentation of the project. The winning entry titled ‘TdxCopter’ was submitted by Patrick Knüppel and Beni Winter, Switzerland. The winners were presented with certificates, and cash award of $20,000US by Stephan Dubach, Toradex AG CEO.”

**TSMC and ARM announced a new multi-year agreement on October 2nd that the companies say will deliver ARMv8-A processor IP optimized for TSMC 10FinFET process technology.

Per the Press Release: “Because of the success in scaling from 20SoC to 16FinFET, ARM and TSMC have decided to collaborate again for 10FinFET. This early path finding work will provide valuable learning to enable physical design IP and methodologies in support of customers to tape-out 10FinFET designs as early as Q4 2015. TSMC will be applying the learnings from prior generations of 20SoC and 16FinFET in the ARM ecosystem to offer performance and power improvements at 10FinFET that will be better than previous nodes. The ARM ecosystem can also take advantage of TSMC’s Open Innovation Platform, which includes a set of ecosystem interfaces and collaborative components initiated and supported by TSMC.”

TSMC VP of R&D Cliff Hou is quoted: “TSMC has continuously been the lead foundry to introduce advanced process technology for ARM-based SoCs. Together with ARM, we proved-out in silicon the high performance and low power of the big.LITTLE architecture as implemented in 16FinFET. Given the successful adoption of our previous collaborative efforts, it makes sense that we continue this fruitful partnership with ARM in future 64-bit cores and 10FinFET.”

**Undo Software announced September 24th that Zuse Institute Berlin, a research institute for applied mathematics and computer science, has purchased the UndoDB reversible debugging tool. Per the Press Release: “ZIB is using UndoDB to debug C/C++ code for its Solving Constraint Integer Programs (SCIP) optimization framework and enterprise supply chain software research projects. Developed in-house by ZIB over the last 12 years, the SCIP mixed integer programming solver and framework is one of the fastest non-commercial solvers for mixed integer programs currently available.

“It forms the basis of the Advanced Solver Technology for Supply Chain Management project, which enables the optimization of complex, integrated supply chain planning processes and models, in order to maximize efficiency and increase productivity. This highly complex enterprise software research project currently comprises over 400,000 lines of code, and is used by major organizations across the world.”

**Uniquify announced September 3rd that its adaptive DDR memory subsystem IP, “recently established as the fastest DDR4 clocking 2800 Mbps in a 28nm process technology, has been licensed to a variety of companies including those in broadband and cellular communications, DSL, HDTV, image processing, networking, test and measurement and video equipment.”

Uniquify CEO Josh Lee is quoted: “Design teams worldwide and in all market segments have found a huge competitive advantage when licensing our DDR memory IP. It’s both high performance and low power, two compulsory characteristics needed for SoC design.”

**Vector Software announced September 30th that the company is offering an integration between the VectorCAST test solution and the Esterel SCADE Suite LifeCycle Qualified Testing Environment (QTE). Per the Press Release: “Engineers using the tool chain can integrate model-based application development with the SCADE Suite, and automatically generate the target test environment and supporting test cases using VectorCAST, providing an on-target testing capability which validates that the software execution behaves as expected.

“Model-based applications developed with the SCADE Suite can now be automatically tested with VectorCAST, ensuring that the embedded application is running as anticipated on the target. Additionally, with the support of VectorCAST’s Change-Based Testing capability, updates to the model can quickly and efficiently be verified without the need to re-validate unmodified code generated from the model.”

**Wind River announced September 23rd that Airbus Defence and Space, an Airbus Group company, relies on Wind River VxWorks 653 Platform for its long endurance tactical unmanned aerial vehicle ATLANTE.

Per the Press Release: “Known as the most important technological and industrial initiative in the Spanish unmanned air vehicle sector, ATLANTE was designed to carry out target identification, shoot correction, and damage evaluation operations, among other ISTAR missions (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance). It offers the capability of operating 24 hours a day, in any meteorological condition and does not require take-off/landing strips.”

Fernando Mijares, ATLANTE Chief Engineer at Airbus Defence and Space. “We chose Wind River VxWorks 653 knowing it would perfectly serve these hard real time and mission critical constraints given its proven track record of successful implementations in the UAV space.”

**Xilinx announced September 30th that the company would showcase All Programmable Solutions for Smarter Systems at ARM TechCon 2014 through a series of demonstrations and presentations with its customers and ecosystem. The demos will highlight ARM processor-based Zynq All Programmable SoCs. Companies/products showcased in the Xylinx booth will include NI System on Module, Integrated Media Processing Platform by Cloudium, Zynq SoC Medical Platform by Topic, IC CAM for Personal Identity Recognition by Cornerstone, and Real-Time Object Recognition and Reconstruction “Starry Night” middleware by VanGogh Imaging.

**XMOS announced September 25th a new modular development system for its xCORE-XA range of eXtended Architecture xCORE devices. The system features a base processor board with real-time hardware debug facilities, xTIMEcomposer Studio tools for integrated code development, and a range of application specific daughter- and mother-cards, the first of which, for Industrial Ethernet and Fieldbus systems, the company also announced.

Per the press release: “The new system allows embedded designers to develop, debug and prototype products based on the range of powerful xCORE-XA devices, which combine multiple deterministic 32-bit xCORE logical cores with an ARM Cortex M3 processor in a single device. xCORE-XA can be programmed in C with the exact set of interfaces and peripherals required for any design. In the same design, engineers can re-use existing ARM code and leverage the rich ARM ecosystem, including standard code libraries that can dramatically accelerate product design time.

“The xCORE-XA industrial solution will be particularly useful for independent software vendors seeking a single programmable platform capable of supporting multiple Industrial Ethernet and Fieldbus protocols. It also allows industrial automation OEMs and other customers to exploit the flexibility and programmability of the xCORE architecture while continuing to leverage their existing protocol stacks and other IP designed for the ARM architecture.”

**LogMeIn announced September 29th that Mario Finocchiaro, Director of IoT Business Development, will be speaking at ARM TechCon in Santa Clara in October. Per the Press Release: “Finocchiaro will discuss the practicalities behind creating high-impact connected solutions, during the session ‘Making the IoT Real for Business with ARM and LogMeIn.’ Attendees will learn about models for deploying IoT-enabled solutions, and how anyone from entrepreneurs to established OEMs can build, operate and capitalize on the IoT.”

**Zebra Technologies announced October 1st the signing of a commercial licensing agreement for Zebra to use ARM’s CoAP and other ARM mbed technologies within its Zatar IoT platform, a cloud-based, multi-sensor integration platform for connecting legacy and smart devices to the Internet and enabling 3rd party applications to easily work with the devices over an open source API. Per the Press Release: “A comprehensive report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, The Internet of Things Business Index: A quiet revolution gathers pace, sponsored by ARM, found that 75 percent of C-suite business leaders are actively researching opportunities created by the IoT.”

Krisztian Flautner, General Manager for IoT business at ARM, is quoted: “The ARM mbed ecosystem is expanding rapidly and we are extremely pleased that Zebra’s Zatar IoT platform will deploy our technologies. We are looking forward to this important collaboration with Zebra to promote the use of standards-based IoT solutions to businesses of all sizes.”